2011/08/14: SwissInfo: “The extent of the suffering is huge”The Dadaab camp in Kenya is the last hope for more and more refugees fleeing famine in Somalia. UNICEF worker Alexandra Rosetti spent four days in the refugee town, the largest of its kind in the world. She said while she had witnessed despair, she also saw hopefulness. Rosetti recorded her experiences on a blog which appeared on the UNICEF Switzerland website.

2011/08/21: PostMedia: They came, they sat, they got arrestedCanadians join in at sit-in to protest environmental risk of oilsands pipeline They came to the White House planning to get arrested, and very quickly got their wish. Dozens of environmental activists opposed to the Keystone XL oilsands pipeline were led away in plastic handcuffs after staging a sit-in Saturday aimed at persuading President Barack Obama to deny a permit allowing construction of the 2,700-kilometre project. The protest marked the opening of a two-week campaign of civil disobedience that organizers hope will scuttle Calgary-based TransCanada Corp.’s $7-billion pipeline, which would carry up to 900,000 barrels of crude from northern Alberta to refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast.

2011/08/15: CBC: Oil rig leaking off Scottish coastThe British government estimates several hundred tonnes of oil may have leaked into the North Sea from a Royal Dutch Shell rig. The energy and climate change department has offered the estimate for the leak at the Gannet Alpha platform off the Scottish coast. The leak began last week.

2011/08/18: PlanetArk: China Pushes ConocoPhillips To Contain Oil Spill By End Of AugustChina’s marine authorities expressed growing frustration at the failure of a unit of ConocoPhillips to contain a two-month oil spill that has spread across the northeast coast and again urged it to halt the leak by the end of August. Officials of the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) met ConocoPhillips officials again on Tuesday and urged the company to seal off oil leaks in northern China’s Bohai Bay and clean up polluted areas before an August 31 deadline, the agency said on its website (www.soa.gov.cn).

It is evident that the Fukushima disaster is going to persist for some time. TEPCO says 6 to 9 months. Now the Japanese Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, says decades. We’ll see. At any rate this situation is not going to be resolved any time soon and deserves its own section.

2011/08/15: CBC: Japan expands nuclear regulatory agencyJapan’s cabinet has approved a plan to expand the main nuclear regulatory agency and move it to the environment ministry from the trade ministry where it has been criticized as being too cozy with the industry it regulates. Chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano said Monday the new agency will also oversee nuclear security, radiation monitoring and crisis management.

2011/08/15: PlanetArk: Japan Eyes Global Nuclear Compensation Treaty: ReportJapan is considering joining a U.S.-led global nuclear compensation treaty in a bid to fend off excessive overseas damage claims related to nuclear accidents, the Nikkei newspaper reported on Sunday, without citing sources. The U.S., Morocco, Romania and Argentina have agreed to the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage, but the treaty needs at least five countries in order to go into effect.

2011/08/19: BBC: Map tracks Antarctica on the moveA team of scientists has created the most complete map of ice motion over the entire continent of Antarctica. Built from images acquired by radar satellites, the visualisation details all the great glaciers and the smaller ice streams that feed them.

2011/08/15: CNN: Tropical Storm Gert steering near BermudaGert has begun its to turn away from land – The storm is about 105 miles from Bermuda, says the National Hurricane Center – Maximum sustained winds have increased to 60 mph with stronger gusts – Gert is expected to skirt Bermuda on Monday afternoon

2011/08/17: BBC: ‘Early wood’ samples reshape plant historyA study of fossilised plant samples has shown that woody plants probably first appeared about 10 million years earlier than previously thought. The 400-million-year-old samples revealed rings of cells characteristic of wood, a team of scientists observed.

2011/08/18: BBC: Nigeria launches two satellitesNigeria has successfully launched two Earth observation satellites which could be used to monitor weather in a region seasonally ravaged by disasters. The NigeriaSat-2 and NigeriaSat-X spacecraft were lofted into orbit aboard a Russian Dnepr rocket from a launch pad in the town of Yasny, southern Russia. Nigeria collaborated with UK engineers on the project, and the satellites are being monitored from control stations in Guildford, UK, and Abuja in Nigeria.

2011/08/16: Eureka: Genomewide mapping reveals developmental and environmental impactsComplex traits that help plants adapt to environmental challenges are likely influenced by variations in thousands of genes that are affected by both the plant’s growth and the external environment, reports a team of researchers at the University of California, Davis. The findings were revealed by a genomewide association mapping of the defense metabolism in Arabidopsis thaliana, a common research plant. The researchers, led by UC Davis plant scientist Daniel Kliebenstein, report the study results today, Aug. 16, in the online journal PLoS Genetics.

2011/08/20: CNN: 2011: Year of billion-dollar disastersThe U.S. has seen nine weather events that caused $1 billion this year, 2011 – None of those has been a hurricane, and the brunt of that season is still to come – Development along coasts raises costs, insurance expert says – Better buildings, early warning and preparation can save lives, reduce damage

2011/08/19: EurActiv: FTT should be used to create jobs, says top trade unionistA financial transaction tax is needed to repair the damage of the financial crisis, which has cost millions in jobs, and the money should be used to invest in low-carbon growth and employment, said Bernadette Ségol, the newly-appointed secretary-general of the European Trade Union Confederation, in an interview with EurActiv.

2011/08/19: CSM: US judges rule for teacher who called creationism ‘superstitious nonsense’A public high school teacher in California may not be sued for making hostile remarks about religion in his classroom, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday. The decision stems from a lawsuit filed by a student charging that the teacher’s hostile remarks about creationism and religious faith violated a First Amendment mandate that the government remain neutral in matters of religion. A three-judge panel of the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that the lawsuit against an advanced placement history teacher at Capistrano Valley High School in Mission Viejo must be thrown out of court because the teacher was entitled to immunity.

2011/08/15: NYT: The Clear Case for the Gas TaxUnless Congress extends it, the 18.4 cents-a-gallon federal gas tax will expire on Sept. 30. Allowing that to happen would be tremendously destructive. It would bankrupt the already stressed Highway Trust Fund, with devastating effects on the country’s highways, bridges, mass transit systems and the economy as a whole. Reports suggest that some House Republicans may push to let the tax lapse or use the threat of expiration as leverage in the budget wars. This is a dangerous idea. If anything, the tax should rise to maintain a system that constantly needs upkeep — the backlog of bridges needing repair is estimated at $72 billion — creates jobs and encourages drivers to buy more fuel-efficient cars.

2011/08/14: DU: Welcome to Election HellWelcome to Election Hell. Take off your coat. Make yourself comfortable. And abandon all hope. Forget all the elections you have seen before. The rules are different now.

2011/08/14: InformedComment: Rick Perry and the Hucksterism of the RichRick Perry’s announcement of his presidential ambitions marks the triumph of fantasy over reality in American politics. Among our more pressing problems are global climate change caused by human production of greenhouse gases; religious fanaticism and interference in governance; and the structural deficit faced by the US government It used to be that political divisions were about the different methods proposed to deal with social problems by persons with different political philosophies. Nowadays, politics is about which fantasy-land the politicians and their admirers reside in.

2011/08/18: Grist: Obama administration moves against Alaska oil drilling[…]On Monday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) took the first step in granting increased federal protection to a relatively small, oil-rich region within ANWR known as the “1002 area” by nominating it for wilderness designation in a lengthy report [PDF] on conservation plans for ANWR. Only Congress can declare wilderness areas, and the “preliminary recommendation” made in the report is only the beginning of a long (and possibly dead-end) road to approval. But it is the first time such a recommendation has been made since the area was set aside for study in a 1980 federal law (from which the area takes its name). Environmental activists and the FWS agree that it marks a major turning point in an ongoing struggle in Alaska between conservationists and oil and gas developers.

2011/08/18: PressEurop: ‘Clean’ energy, scourge of our countrysideCrisis-hit Italian farmers are turning to the intensive cultivation of maize for biogas production, which is more profitable than growing it for food. But they’re laying themselves open to the mercies of speculators — and they’re threatening biodiversity too, declares the founder of the Slow Food movement.

2011/08/18: ABC(Au): Government pushes ahead with power station cutsThe Federal Government hopes to have contracts locked in by the end of June next year to cut 2,000 megawatts of power from the dirtiest generators. The Government foreshadowed the plan to close some of the most emissions-intensive power stations when it announced the details of its carbon scheme in July. It has now confirmed it is targeting either the Hazelwood, Yallourn or Energy Brix power stations in Victoria or the Playford power station in South Australia. It hopes to have struck a deal with them by the end of June 2012, but says it is likely they would not actually close for another six years.

2011/08/17: ABC(Au): Bunbury forum focuses on climate changeAbout 300 people gathered in Bunbury last night for a public forum on climate change. The Climate Commission released a report yesterday which warned that Western Australia faces a bleak future if nothing is done to combat climate change. The report found rainfall across the south-west of the state has dropped by about 15 per cent over the past 40 years, seriously reducing run-off into the state’s dams. It also revealed sea levels on the west coast are rising at twice the global average and the temperature of the water is increasing.

2011/08/16: PlanetArk: Australian Farmers Want Land Protected From MinersAustralian farmers demanded greater protection against coal seam gas miners eyeing their land for exploration as a political fight surrounding the $70 billion gas industry on Monday threatened to splinter the surging conservative opposition. After months of tensions between farmers and miners over rapid expansion of the potentially lucrative industry across prime agricultural land, the influential Greens party called for new laws to give farmers stronger rights to keep coal seam exploration rigs off their land.

2011/08/15: ABC(Au): Liberal MP ridicules party’s royal commission ideaA West Australian federal Liberal MP has ridiculed his party’s call for a royal commission into the science of climate change. At yesterday’s WA Liberal Party state conference, delegates voted overwhelmingly in favour of a royal commission. Dr Mal Washer has described the move as stupid and senseless.

2011/08/18: PlanetArk: China Pushes ConocoPhillips To Contain Oil Spill By End Of AugustChina’s marine authorities expressed growing frustration at the failure of a unit of ConocoPhillips to contain a two-month oil spill that has spread across the northeast coast and again urged it to halt the leak by the end of August. Officials of the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) met ConocoPhillips officials again on Tuesday and urged the company to seal off oil leaks in northern China’s Bohai Bay and clean up polluted areas before an August 31 deadline, the agency said on its website (www.soa.gov.cn).

2011/08/18: PlanetArk: How Indonesia Hurt Its Climate Change ProjectIn July 2010, U.S. investor Todd Lemons and Russian energy giant Gazprom believed they were just weeks from winning final approval for a landmark forest preservation project in Indonesia. A year later, the project is close to collapse, a casualty of labyrinthine Indonesian bureaucracy, opaque laws and a secretive palm oil company.

2011/08/19: CBC: Feds step up for Lower Churchill megaprojectThe federal government said Friday it will help defray the costs of the controversial Lower Churchill hydroelectric project in Labrador through a loan guarantee. “It will grow our economy and our status as an energy superpower,” Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said during an announcement in St. John’s. Plans to tap hydroelectric power on the Churchill River “represent an unprecedented opportunity for Newfoundland and Labrador — indeed the entire Atlantic region — to produce clean energy,” Oliver said. The loan guarantee will mean that Newfoundland and Labrador and its partners will be able to finance the $6.2-billion project at a lower cost. Officials saidthe memorandum of agreement now needs to be turned into a formal agreement. The memorandum of agreement follows through on a campaign pledge that Prime Minister Stephen Harper made in March. Newfoundland and Labrador aims to generate 824 megawatts of power at Muskrat Falls on Labrador’s Churchill River and export it to Newfoundland while moving as much as 40 per cent to Nova Scotia and other markets.

2011/08/16: CBC: Gulf [of St. Lawrence] oil review requested by Ottawa — Environment Minister wants updated strategic assessmentThe federal Minister of Environment is asking for a more extensive environment review before Corridor Resources is allowed to explore for oil in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board has said Corridor’s plans to drill an exploratory well to search for oil and gas in the offshore area between Quebec and Newfoundland, known as the Old Harry reserve, are unlikely to cause significant adverse environmental effects. Both provinces lay claim to the the basin, which some experts estimate could have as much as two billion barrels of recoverable oil. In a letter released Monday, Peter Kent said he would like to see an updated strategic environmental assessment done before Corridor is allowed to drill an exploratory well.

2011/08/15: G&M: Tony Clement kept auditor in dark on G8 spending, municipal files suggestTony Clement urged mayors in his riding to send G8 Legacy Fund requests directly to his constituency office, and also involved public servants in meetings to decide how to spend the $50-million, new documents show. The information in the documents contradicts the findings of Auditor General Sheila Fraser, who concluded in a report released in June that federal public servants weren’t involved in the process.

2011/08/15: CBC: NDP targets Clement over G8 legacy fundingThe NDP is held a news conference Monday to refresh the party’s allegations that the Conservative government mismanaged the controversial G8 legacy infrastructure fund. The party’s ethics critic, Charlie Angus, says the party received documents that contain new revelations related to Treasury Board President Tony Clement’s involvement with the fund and a “possible coverup.”

2011/08/15: TStar: Clement steered G8 funding in riding, documents showTony Clement personally presided over the $50 million G8 legacy payouts, funneling requests for taxpayer-funded projects in his riding directly through his political office in Huntsville, new documents show. NDP MP Charlie Angus says the use of Clement’s local office was done deliberately to skirt scrutiny and keep watchdogs like the auditor general in the dark.

2011/08/16: Tyee: Overheard: Asia’s View of Alberta, Tar Sands and PipelinesIf this insider is right, Gateway is purely a ploy and Canadians are rubes.[…]The insights begin when I wander over to the consultant, sipping my Java and trying my best to appear nonchalant. I ask: “Why shouldn’t the Canadians ship bitumen to Asia? Isn’t it a good idea to develop alternative markets?”“Not in this case,” he replies. “The Gulf of Mexico coast is the only place in the world with any significant capacity for handling bitumen. That’s because it has refineries equipped to handle heavy oil from Venezuela. If the Asians buy any bitumen from Canada, they’ll insist on a very steep discount, because they’ll have to ship it to the Gulf of Mexico, too.”

2011/08/19: CBC: Yukon to test for radiation in caribou herdResearchers plan to test for radiation in Yukon’s local food supply some six months after a Japanese nuclear disaster. The Northern Contaminants Program will test caribou for radiation as part of its ongoing effort to monitor the Porcupine Caribou Herd. The move comes after a nuclear power plant in Japan was severely damaged in March following an earthquake and tsunami, which spewed radiation into the air and water for weeks after the accident.

2011/08/: NFU: Save the CWBThe federal government has announced that it plans to end the Canadian Wheat Board’s single desk authority effective August 1, 2012, by amending the legislation to remove the requirement for a farmer vote before making any changes to the CWB’s single desk, and then eliminating the single desk regardless of farmers’ wishes.

2011/08/20: PostMedia: Muzzled B.C. biologist may lose lab fundingA fisheries biologist has not only been muzzled by the federal government, but her lab could be in trouble as well, Postmedia News has learned. Kristi Miller, a geneticist who was silenced by the federal government’s Privy Council Office in January, will finally be permitted to speak this week at the inquiry looking into the decline of B.C.’s famed Fraser River salmon. She is due to testify at the Cohen Commission on Wednesday about her team’s ominous discovery that viral pathogens may be weakening the fish. Federal documents indicate she might also have plenty to say about the health of her lab at the Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island.

2011/08/19: CBC: Cancer rates downstream from oilsands to be probedA long-awaited Alberta Health study into the health of people living downstream from the oilsands, where cancer rates are higher than normal, appears to be finally going ahead. Concerns were first raised in 2006 about elevated cancer rates in Fort Chipewyan, about 220 kilometres north of Fort McMurray. A provincial government study released in 2009 confirmed the trend and recommended more analysis into possible causes. “For various reasons, and none of them really sort of satisfactory, nothing has happened — this is over 2½ years later,” said John O’Connor, the family doctor who drew widespread attention five years ago for alleging Fort Chipewyan had a high rate of a rare bile-duct cancer. “But in the interim, we’ve had a lot of scientific studies that have revealed the lack of monitoring and the lack of due diligence on the part of governments, both federal and provincial, in looking after the environment,” O’Connor said Thursday.

2011/08/18: CBC: Statoil will admit to oilsands infractionsAn Edmonton court has been told that Norwegian energy giant Statoil will admit to at least some environmental infractions in relation to its oilsands operations in northern Alberta. “There will be a guilty plea,” Crown prosecutor Susan McRory told a judge Wednesday. “We’re looking at creative sentencing options,” she said. “That’s a labour-intensive process.” The company was charged in February under provincial laws with 16 counts of improperly diverting water for use at its in-situ site near Conklin, Alta. The company also faces three counts of providing false or misleading statements about the alleged activity in 2008 and 2009.

2011/08/19: PostMedia: Alberta fears ‘misinformation’ by greens on fracking: report — NDP calling for safety investigationLeaked Alberta cabinet documents suggest the province is worried environmental groups will undermine public support for shale gas development by spreading “misinformation” about health and environmental effects of chemical fracking. The records show the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers has offered to work with the government to “enhance” public relations efforts. CAPP, a powerful industry lobby group, is the only non-governmental organization that will be consulted during inter-governmental talks.

2011/08/16: CBC: Alberta pipeline granted conditional approval to reopenAlberta’s Energy Resources Conservation Board has given Plains Midstream Canada conditional approval to reopen a pipeline that leaked 4.5 million litres of crude oil into the northern Alberta forest just three months ago. The company says the problem that caused the spill from the Rainbow pipeline on April 28 has been fixed but the cleanup is continuing. Plains also says it intends to restore the damaged area about 100 kilometres northeast of Peace River.

2011/08/20: G&M: Ontario government gives stranded solar projects a lifelineThe Ontario government is fixing a glitch in its fledgling bid to become a green-energy powerhouse, offering a lifeline to people worried about losing their solar-panel investments because they can’t get a connection to the power grid. After months of talks with Ontario Power Authority and Hydro One, Energy Minister Brad Duguid on Friday directed the government’s power agency to offer a resolution to about 1,500 micro-solar projects that were conditionally approved in locations where the electric system’s capacity is constrained. Owners of these projects, which in some cases cost $100,000, will now be able to move them to a spot where it’s possible to feed green power into the grid and generate revenue. They will be responsible for covering any extra fees. The relocation option comes less than three weeks before the start of the Ontario election campaign, expected to be a close battle between the governing Liberals and Conservatives.

2011/08/16: PostMedia: Wind turbines too noisy: Top official — Environment Ministry memo recommends reductionOntario regulations permit wind turbines to produce too much noise, says an internal memo written by a provincial Ministry of the Environment official who recommended a sharp reduction in allowable levels. The April 2010 memo, written by Cameron Hall, a senior environmental officer in the ministry’s Guelph district office, was obtained through Freedom of Information and released Monday by Wind Concerns Ontario, a coalition of 58 grassroots antiwind groups in Ontario. The memo concludes that the current noise limit of 40 decibels should be reduced to 30 to 32 decibels.

2011/08/15: ABC(Au): Power consumption makes historic dropOne of Australia’s largest electricity distributors says it is experiencing a “historic” cut in households’ demand for power. Ausgrid, which provides power to much of New South Wales, has announced demand for its electricity by regular households has fallen 2 per cent each year for the past four years. It is the first time the company has seen a fall in demand since the 1950s.

2011/08/17: BBC: Wind turbine maker Vestas back in profitShares in Vestas, the world’s largest wind turbine maker, have jumped 23% after the company reported a strong order book and a return to profit. Net profit for the second quarter was 55m euros ($80m; £48m), compared with a loss of 143m euros a year earlier. Revenue rose by 36% to 1.4bn euros. The company suffered heavy losses in the first quarter. Vestas said it expected to deliver 50% more energy capacity this year compared with 2010.

2011/08/19: BBC: Half-built US nuclear plant to be completed in AlabamaA plan to complete work on a US nuclear reactor at a half-built plant in Alabama has been approved, more than 20 years after construction was halted. The Tennessee Valley Authority approved the $4.9bn (£3bn) plan to restart construction, which stopped in 1988 amid declining power demand estimates. The Bellefonte Nuclear Plant is expected to be operational by 2020.

2011/08/20: CNN: 2011: Year of billion-dollar disastersThe U.S. has seen nine weather events that caused $1 billion this year, 2011 – None of those has been a hurricane, and the brunt of that season is still to come – Development along coasts raises costs, insurance expert says – Better buildings, early warning and preparation can save lives, reduce damage

My first novel Water was published in Canada May, 2007. The American release was in October. An Introductionto the novel is available, along with the Unpublished Forewordand the Launch Talk(which includes some quotations), An overview of my writing is available here.